any beauty in stiff and formal styles, and with them it was owing to an ascetic exaltation which led them to quench in feminine beauty everything which pertained to passion and the senses, and to portray their seraphic ideals without a soft curve or a graceful touch to relieve their sainted immobility."

We may add some advice about the propriety-in an artistic sense of making use of coloring matters for the hair when gray, and on the employment of false hair and wigs. The story is related of the Emperor Augustus, that on one occasion he found his daughter Julia undergoing the operation of having her gray hairs plucked from her head by her tire-woman. "Would you prefer, my daughter," said the Emperor, "to be gray, or to be bald?" She replied that grayness was more to her mind. "Then," rejoined her father, "why do you adopt the most certain means to be bald?" The Emperor's question has a wider application, for many a one, eagerly recurring to some of the advertised means of darkening the hair, have learned only too late that thereby they have exchanged grayness for baldness.

There are some faces which are decidedly improved by gray hair. They acquire a dignity and attractiveness, which they never previously had. Like some landscapes, their charms are greatest when covered with the snows of the winter time of life. Such faces should never be marred by dyed hair.

WORDS ON WIGS.

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It is contrary to all good taste to have the hair display the raven hue of youth when the marks of age are conspicuous on the face and the figure. For this reason, if it is decided to wear a wig, one should be chosen which suits with the whole appearance, and not simply with the desire to give to the top of the head an air of juvenility which is flatly contradicted by all other parts of the person.

Wigs, to speak of them a little more at length, should be as light as possible, readily permeable to the exterior air, so that the functions of the skin are not interfered with. They should not be too firmly fastened to the scalp, and they should be removed as frequently as possible, lest their warmth or weight lead to some eruption or other disease of the skin beneath. There is no call for their use merely for grayness, and when they are worn merely for the sake of allowing the hairs to gain strength by repeated shaving, the precautions we have mentioned, most of which have been already urged by Professor Cazenave in his excellent treatise on the hair, should be redoubled.

THE BEARD.

HOW TO WEAR THE BEARD.

OST of our counsels hitherto on this subject of

MOST

beauty are as applicable to the one as the other sex. If we have spoken as though it were solely the more beautiful half of the race we were addressing, it has been out of gallantry, and not because our advice is suited to them alone. Like the popular lecturer, we address our audience as "Ladies and Gentlemen," letting the lords come last; like the heralds at the ancient tournaments, we have approached with the cry, "Place aux dames." But the laws of beauty are the same in spirit, applied to all mankind.

Now, however, we have a few words to say to the male sex on the hygiene and artistic arrangement of that natural characteristic peculiarly their own-the beard.

We broach the subject with a becoming sense of its importance, for the beard is no indifferent matter. · All ( 310 )

nations agree to that. The Chinese say that Confucius owed his wisdom to the length of his beard. When he died, it was cut from his face, and is still preserved. "That is why," say the Celestials, "we, his disciples, continue to be the wisest people under the sun."

The Koran forbids the true believer to cut the hair on his face. "By the beard of the Prophet," is a solemn oath among the Moslems. Nevertheless, Selim I., Sultan of Turkey, dared to disobey the command of the Koran, and imitated the dogs of Franks by appearing with a clean-shaven chin. The mufti reprimanded him for his wickedness. "I cut it," replied the Sultan, "to prevent my visier leading me by it."

From a cosmetic point of view, the cut and care of the beard stamp at once the man. As it is worn, it is either the greatest ornament or the most signal marplot to the countenance. You can often tell at a glance whether the wearer has taste and an artistic eye, or is utterly devoid of both. Many a man who would with a properly cut beard be prepossessing, if not handsome, gives himself the appearance of a clown, a fop, or a baboon, by ignorance on this essential point.

Each individual here must judge for himself, but there are certain rules he must never transgress. We will mention a few of them. They are founded on those same laws of beauty on which we have been harping so much. One of them is, that the face should

present, when seen from in front, a general, oval outline from above downward. This can be greatly aided by the beard. If the face is round, the beard on the chin should be cultivated; if long and thin, then sidewhiskers are appropriate. A person with a flat, broad nose should never wear a moustache, nor should one with a very short and thin upper lip, as in the former case it gives a brutish, in the latter an ignoble aspect to the features. Still less should a person with retreating forehead or chin cultivate this style of beard, as it gives the profile a yet more unfavorable outline.

A bald-headed man should not wear a heavy beard, as the contrast is ludicrous. A full beard, however natural it is, is not suitable to him who has but a sparse, hungry, and irregular growth on his face, nor to him whose beard sprouts out crooked, bristly, and harsh. Unfortunately, a face scarred with smallpox hardly ever can support a fine beard. The hair bulbs seem never to recover their strength after that disease. No style of beard should be worn which is strange, eccentric, or vulgar. This is a precept singularly disregarded in "the best society" (bless us). But this is but another proof (if we needed another) that the best society often takes snobbery for good taste. For example, long tails to the beard or whiskers, fantastic curls to the ends of the hair, fantastic shapes to the patches of hair allowed to grow, or immense length and size of any portion of the beard, are all quite as foreign